Organizers say march will be large, diverse

Published 4:00 am, Friday, January 17, 2003

Activists throughout the West will descend on San Francisco for Saturday's anti-war rally, an event enthusiastic organizers said could attract 80,000 people.

Police, however, said they don't expect the march down Market Street and the rally at the Civic Center -- which will feature speeches by Rep. Barbara Lee, Rep. Lynn Woolsey and others -- to get that big.

"It will be in the 50,000 range," said Dewayne Tulley, spokesman for San Francisco police. "And if this demo is anything like the October one, we're not expecting any trouble."

Everyone involved agreed Thursday that the event will draw hordes of demonstrators of every stripe.

"The really encouraging thing is that everyone is linking arms in solidarity against the war," said Bill Hackwell of International Answer, the group spearheading Saturday's rallies in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. "The peace movement, the religious community, students and environmentalists. We're all coming together."

Senior Action Network, Code Pink Women's Peace Vigil and Environmentalists Against the War will be among the peace activists marching. Veterans for Peace will be joined by Veterans of Foreign Wars posts from Sacramento to Santa Cruz.

"The range of people will be from World War II to the Gulf War," said Dan Fahey of Veterans for Peace. "They'll be from all branches and all dates of service."

Organizers said they expect the rally to be at least as large as an Oct. 26 protest that drew 50,000 people to San Francisco.

"We're hoping for at least the same turnout we had in October, and we're optimistic that we'll have even more," said Jason Mark, an organizer with Global Exchange, based in San Francisco.

Activists already are trickling in from as far away as Alberta, and others are coming by bus and car from as far away as Montana, organizers said.

Tulley said the police department has assigned extra patrol, tactical and motorcycle officers to the rally, he but declined to say how many.